Australian medical research raises the bar: eating chocolate for hearty good health

My heart lifted … and not just from joy but from rude good health because researchers at Monash University have discovered that eating a 100g bar of dark chocolate a day (yes, the whole seductive, delicious, mouthwatering brown slab, from each melting cube to the last sticky crumb) is one way to avoid cardiovascular disease. According to an article published in the British Medical Journal recently it reduces blood pressure and lowers cholesterol levels.

PhD student Ella Zomer, Professor Christopher Reid, Dr. Alice Owen and Dr. Dianna Magliano from the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, and Professor Danny Liew from The University of Melbourne predicted that daily dark chocolate consumption could prevent 70 non-fatal and 15 fatal cardiovascular events per 10,000 people over a 10-year period. Apparently high-cocoa chocolate is beneficial because it contains antioxidant chemicals called polyphenols which help keep blood vessels dilated, thereby reducing blood pressure and improving blood flow.

“We’ve predicted significant health benefits from eating 100g of dark chocolate every day over a 10 year period. That's about the equivalent of one premium-quality block containing a minimum 70 per cent cocoa," Ms. Zomer said. “We're not suggesting that the high-risk group use dark chocolate as their only preventative measure, but in combination with sensible choices, such as exercise."
And if you want to begin your therapy straightaway let me suggest a terrific supplier I've discovered recently: Red Star Chocolate which produces Duffy's – handmade in Lincolnshire. It is one of the very few companies which actually roast, de-shell and stone-grind the cocoa beans themselves on site. All of their bars are single origin, which means they are made with beans from one harvest from one region of one country. I can't think of a nicer way to live longer.